CV boot install (1 Viewer)

[cruiseroutfit]

If you are likely to experience a field failure, build a removal tool. The one I'm holding is a Hilux variant but I pack a 39mm/12pt in my 200 and we have one in the racecar 200 too

Fwiw we (Cruiser Outfitters) stock the boot kit, sockets, clamps kits, etc. If there is interest in some removal tools, I can certainly whip some up.

 

[Climbingnut]

Kurt, these are great ideas, and if I'm honest, I was rather hoping you'd comment! With your experience on Expeditions 7, Canguro Racing and your shop Cruiser Outfitters, I figured you'd have a pretty good idea of what specialty tools are needed.

I always carried the hub nut socket, plus many other spare tools and parts with my 80, and still like to carry a decent tool set with me when I'm in the bush. When I get back to the USA, I'll give you a call and get things arranged. I'm all about the one stop shop! I'll be traveling around the country for a couple of months, so should be plenty of time to gather stuff.

 

[KLF]

Rubber gloves and lots and lots of blue shop towels. It's a messy job.

 

[linuxgod]

Two other thoughts:

1. Have some extra 75W90 on hand as well, since if you pull the CV it'll drip some out (even if you're quick to plug up the front diff)
2. If you're building a repair kit, might be worth having an extra seal for the front diff. The factory one is reusable, but if it gets nicked while you're removing the old CV or inserting the new one your best case would be driving it back to civilization and then having to remove the CV again to replace the seal.

 

[Climbingnut]

When I was last in South Africa, I had a diff shop install some Harrop/Eaton E-lockers into my front and rear diffs. I had the misfortune of them nicking the outside cv boot in the process, and I only discovered it the next day, on a Friday around 3pm after having my BP-51's tightened up at another shop... So, I had to go find someone who was open at 4pm in Joburg to put on a new CV boot. After much panicking (we were leaving for Angola the next day and couldn't change the departure), and many phone calls to friends, I found another diff shop who had the parts. They swapped the boots out in an hour, but used some aftermarket rubber ones. I think they don't hold up nearly as well as the more plastic Toyota ones do. Either way, I'm going to swap both CV boots out. I'll keep the outer one as an emergency spare. This way I can separate the CV at the outside joint, slide the inner CV boot on, add the grease, and tighten it in place without needing to remove the CV shaft from the diff.

A number of friends of mine have had mildly torn cv boots from working in the bush and have injected the boot with more grease, cleaned it up, and then used gorilla tape to keep the hole sealed until all the parts necessary had arrived.

When I once moaned about how it's hard to get proper tools in Angola, a friend of mine and business owner here in Namibe replied with "What are you talking about? You have the proper tool between your ears! Make a plan!" He's not wrong about that.

 

[Climbingnut]

Anyone know if the outer cv has c-clips on it? I would have thought the inner and outer would be identical, but I'm battling to find any form of c-clip on the outer cv. I've dug around with a small screwdriver, my fingers and found nothing. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[TexAZ]

The two ends are different. One has a ring that sits in a groove at the lip of the cup. iirc the other end does not.
Ill look up the picture i took last time i did mine

 

[TexAZ]

Heres the inner....no pics of the outter

 

[Climbingnut]

TexAz,

I just wrapped up my CV boot repair. Very different CV axle on the 2016 LC 200. I left the inside shaft in the diff and just pulled the bird cage, balls and race out. From there I removed the race c-clip, and the bird cage, balls and all came off the inside axle shaft.

I never could get the outer cv axle to disassemble. Couldn't find any c-clips of any sort. So, I cleaned it up as best I could, slid the new cv-boot over with new grease, and clamped the boot down. The inside one was fairly straight forward. Just the reverse of disassembly. Only thing was I forgot to slide the new boot on before assembly. I pulled everything out quick, removed the c-clip buried in grease, slammed the birdcage, balls and race in a clean plastic bag with all the new grease, put the boot on the axle then reassembled.

I'm guessing that the big c-clip of sorts is for the inside axle shaft on the diff side?? I never ran into one.

Anyone know what the torque specs are on the 2 lower bolts that connect the spindle to the LBJ and LCA?

It sure is nice to have OEM cv-boots on once again. Those aftermarket rubbery ones are a POS.

 

[Climbingnut]

As Tundra's and LC 200's are so similar, would the torque specs on the Tundra be the same as the LC? I found this photo online from a Tundra forum. Says 221 ft/lb for those 2 bolts. Sound about right?

 

[TexAZ]

Same torque, same parts.

 

[Climbingnut]

@linuxgod/Geoff, I'm interested in these clamps. I have a very small amount of grease seeping out of the larger clamps on both sides of the cv boot. I clamped those things as tight as can be. Did the MM-C clamps cause any vibrations from being out of balance? Did you order from Amazon/ebay or directly from the MM-C website?

 

[linuxgod]

I ordered directly from the McMaster-Carr website. I didn't put a torque wrench to them but they did need to be tightened down pretty hard...

I do not notice any driveline vibration from them. I believe on the 100-series the recommendation was to offset the clamps 180 degrees so if there is any slight vibration from the weight of the screw it will hopefully balance itself out. That said when grease was first leaking I had a few of the boots reclamped with standard clamps, but was short one clamp, so at the time one (and only one) of the clamps was a regular worm-drive clamp (not the MMC "soft edge" variant but just a regular hose clamp). If anything should have made it feel unbalanced I would think it would've been that setup, but it was fine.

I'm personally not impressed by the hammer-style clamps. I know that's what Toyota uses, but when my CV boots were replaced those style are what was leaking out grease.

 

[Climbingnut]

The ones that came with my OEM boot kit aren't the hammer type, but rather the ear-type clamp ones that you need those special crimping pliers. Stranger still is that the outboard cv boot on the outer stub axle used was different than the inboard stub axle boot clamp. One was ear type, the other used a lever that squeezed the clamp shut, and then you had to tap down some bits to keep the lever locked in place. There's no way to tighten it beyond that.

As I'm traveling the next 4 months, I'll leave things as they are. Maybe it's all just settling in?? I'll get some of those worm drive clamps as well as a few extra OEM ones just in case.

 

[linuxgod]

Yeah the crimp ones are even worse than the hammer style.

I've read people saying the same thing and I thought the same thing initially but no I don't think it will "settle in". They will continue to drip or spray (depending how loose) grease until you run out of grease in the boot. They will also allow a small amount of water infiltration (if grease can get out, water can get in) which is especially bad.

I'd get some clamps, even regular worm drive clamps temporarily, and replace any which are leaking. You can leave the rest for now. It can be done while on the vehicle - snip the old ones off and slip the new ones around and crank them down. If you want to offset the gear part of the clamps just roll the truck a bit forward or backward to make it easy access.

If you drive it around for a few months with them leaking you'll end up losing grease over that time but you'll never know how much.

 

[Climbingnut]

Makes me wonder how they can work so well from the factory, but be such a PITA and useless when putting them on for a repair? I'll definitely get some better clamps. The inside ones on the axle between the two stub shafts are sealing just fine. It's the larger crimp clamps on the stub shaft sides. Maybe the larger diameter of the cup on the shaft makes it more difficult to crimp down because of friction or something??